SURREY, B.C. - The RCMP officer in charge of the Surrey, B.C., detachment is trying to assure citizens they are safe, despite a spasm of shootings in 32 hours that left four men dead and one wounded.

Chief Supt. Bill Fordy made the pledge in a news release issued Tuesday that said the murders have a common, criminal theme.

"There is nothing glamorous about life in the underworld of crime," he said. "This is not television, the harsh reality is being played out here and now and is testament to the fact that the life expectancy of anyone involved in criminal gangs is very short."

He said if people involve themselves in crime, the likelihood that they'll end up dead in a ditch, or in jail, is very high.

Fordy said Surrey is safe because the majority of residents are law-abiding citizens with no involvement in criminal activity.

Sgt. Jennifer Pound, with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said at least two of the murders were gang related.

A 27-year-old Surrey man, Manjot Dhillon, was identified as the victim of a shooting early Sunday evening.

Early Tuesday morning, 29-year-old Manjinder "Manny" Hairan was killed and a second man with him was injured.

Pound said two victims found dead in a parkade late Sunday night were both Surrey residents and both "known to police."

"IHIT can say that evidence retrieved thus far does not support this homicide to be gang related," she said in a news release.

The victims of that shooting, John McGiveron and Geordie Carlow, were both 33 years old.